BMW, Mercedes, and Audi close Nokia Here Maps sale - and your next car could benefit

Audi AG, BMW Group, and Daimler AG now officially own Here, Nokia's digital mapping and location business. The three partners each hold an equal stake.

Although it was heavily rumoured for a while that Uber would acquire Nokia's Here Maps, a rival bid from German car manufacturers was accepted instead last August. But the consortium of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler has just succeeded in buying the mapping service.

Now, with all of the necessary regulatory approvals out of the way, one obvious benefit to this transaction is that future German cars, including Volkswagens and other cars from brands in the group, will more than likely begin to have in-car satellite navigation systems driven by Here Maps.

That's not especially new as Nokia claimed that four out of five vehicles that feature built-in satnavs already use the service. The German carmakers though will now have more ownership over the data and could make money from many of its rivals in licensing mapping data to companies like Ford, etc.

Nokia said its net proceeds from the deal - which was initially expected to close in the first quarter of 2016 - would be around 2.55 billion euros (£1.96 billion). Nokia itself decided to sell Here Maps shortly before purchasing Alcatel and announcing that its biggest focus as a company going forward would be in the network technology market.

The money gained from the sale will reportedly be invested in growing Nokia's presence in that sector. That said, it is claimed that Nokia remains keen to bring new consumer technologies to market in future.